~ Five Weeks Ago ~
"When are you coming home?" I asked my mom through the phone. "You've been gone for ages. I miss you."
"I miss you, too, honey." The woman said softly. "But I don't know when I'm coming back."
"Mom, you can quit if you want to." I told her. "Nobody's forcing you to stay."
"Don't you think I know that, Alissa?" She questioned, raising her voice. "I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this so you have the option to do the things I couldn't do, like go to college."
"I've told you. I don't want to go to college and it's been almost a year since you said you were gonna get your old job back so why don't you?"
"I don't want to come home." The woman then snapped. "Not right now."
"But why?"
"I have to go but I will call you soon, okay?"
"Okay." I whispered before the call was disconnected.
"Urgh!" I screamed as I threw my phone across the room in frustration.
"Are you okay?" JJ asked me from the doorway. I turned around to look at the boy and I frowned.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough." The boy said as he walked over to my bed and sat down. "You should cut her some slack, her best friend is missing. You would probably want to get away if it was your friend."
"Big John is like a father to me." I sighed as I sat beside the boy. "And I'm living here with his son who misses him just as much, if not more."
"She'll come back."
"I know that." I told him. "She has too. It's just... I don't want her to come back if she feels like she doesn't have a choice. I want her to come back because she wants to."
"I know just the thing to cheer you up." JJ then smiled as he stood up and walked out of the room.
Several moments later, the boy walked back with a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses. "Hey, so, where's John B anyway?"
"No idea." I said. "He wasn't here when I got home." JJ then sat beside me and handed me the glasses before filling them.
"Okay." He said. "To crappy parents."
"To crappy parents." I repeated as we both took the shot.
Five shots later, I was already drunk. I couldn't stop laughing and I was slurring my words. JJ was almost the same but we still continued to drink. "Can I tell you a secret?" I whispered into the boys ear.
"You can tell me anything." He said.
"You can't tell anyone I told you this but... Pope is crushing on Kiara." I smiled.
"Wait, really?" JJ questioned. I nodded as the smile on my face grew even more.
"Shh." I told him before I stood up.
"Where are you going?" The boy asked me.
"We need more booze." I smiled before falling to the floor.
"Ali, you okay?" JJ asked as he moved quickly to help me up. I nodded and when I caught my balance, I continued to laugh making JJ laugh, too. I wasn't thinking in that moment but we were both drunk and I needed to do something that would make me feel better.
That's when I kissed him. I kissed him before pulling back and looking the boy in the eye as he thought about it for a moment before he crashed his lips onto the mine. It grew heated quickly and after a short while, JJ pulled his shirt over his head. We then moved over to the bed. He continued to kiss me as he held his body over mine and I straddled my legs around his waist.
The next thing I know is I'm waking up the next morning naked in my bed with JJ lying beside me. I sat up and pulled the covers up to my chest as I frowned. "Alissa?" John B's voice asked as I heard the front door close.
"Shit." I whispered before turning to JJ and shaking him to wake him up.
"What?" He asked before opening his eyes.
"You have to go." I panicked. "Like right now."
"Alissa!" John B said again, this time is voice was closer.
"Oh, shit!" JJ exclaimed quietly as he jumped out of the bed. I closed my eyes and turned away as the boy pulled on his shorts and I frown.
"Get under the bed." I told him.
"I'm not gonna-"
"Under the bed." I repeated.
"Okay." JJ sighed before hiding underneath the bed as John B opened the door.
"Sorry, did I wake you?" John B asked. I shook my head.
"Did you just get in?"
"Yeah, I stayed at Pope's." He told me. "What did you do last night?"
"I was here. By myself. Watching TV." I lied. "Did you need something?"
"Um, yeah, I was gonna go grocery shopping. Is there anything you want from the store?" The boy asked.
"No, I'm fine." I said.
"Okay, I'll see you later then." John B finished.
"Yeah, bye." I whispered as he shut the door. "JJ?" I then asked.
JJ climbed out from underneath the bed and looked and looked at me. "Yeah?"
"You have to go." I told him. "And we never speak of this. No pogue on pogue macking, remember?"
"I thought you said it was a stupid rule?" He asked me as he grabbed his shirt and pulled it on.
"It is." I sighed. "But rules are rules."
"Yeah, well, rules are meant to be broken." JJ told me. "I'll catch you later."
I watched as JJ walked out of the room and I fell back into my pillow as I stared up at the ceiling. "What the hell have I just done?" I asked myself.
***
~ Present Day ~
"He said it looked something like this." Kie told me and Sarah as she is a bad drawing of inside the well. "That's fifty feet down, and they're using a 100 foot rope. So I guess this little wagon will go... straight to the gold room." She finished as the three of us laughed.
"Who drew this?" Sarah asked.
"Who do you think?" I asked with a smile on my face. "Let's just be glad that he doesn't want to be an artist."
"Kie, this better work." JJ said as he approached us in the van and dropped the gold we had on the bottom. "We can't pawn this if there's a giant wheat symbol on it.
"It's gonna work." Kiara told him as she picked up a blowtorch.
She then picked up the gold and made her way out of the van before getting ready to melt the gold down. Sarah followed her before she sat down with John B and I took a deep breath as I looked up at JJ. "Hey, do you remember when you asked me if I ever thought of night?" I asked the boy, only loud enough so that he could here. JJ turned to his head to look at me and nodded. "Well, I do." I admitted. "I do think of night."
"Like, a good way or a bad way?" The boy questioned.
"Did you tell anyone?" I asked him, ignoring his question completely. "It's just, I've heard you talk about all these other girls with John B and- I don't know- I just thought that maybe you told him."
"You're not just some other girl, Ali. You're my best friend." He told me. "You don't have to worry. I didn't tell anyone. Besides, John B thinks of you like a sister. I didn't think he'd want to know if I did tell him."
"Well, thank you." I said. "For not telling anyone."
"Yeah." JJ said before walking over to Pope and the others.
I stayed behind in the van for a few moments by myself as I thought. JJ had been acting differently with me since he found out about Sarah being my sister even if he pretended like nothing was wrong. "Alissa." I heard Kiara say from outside. "You gonna come watch me melt some gold."
"Yeah, okay." I replied before climbing out of the van.
***
"Hell of a job melting it down, Dr Frankenstein." JJ told Kie as we all climbed out of the van. I looked at the piece of gold in his hand. It was one huge lump and it wasn't very appealing to look at.
"Like you could've done it better." Kiara said.
"I could have done much better. I took a welding class."
"When?" Kie then asked him as she raised her voice slightly.
"Hey, just, chill out, okay?" John B told them.
"Can we just go in and pawn that thing, already?" I asked as I looked up at the pawn shop sign.
"It's easy for you to say that." JJ said as he turned to me. "You're not the one that has to pawn this piece of shit off. How did I get this job anyway?"
"Cause you're the best liar." Pope told him.
"Aside from Ali?" The boy questioned, making me frown.
"I didn't lie." I claimed. "I just didn't tell you."
"It's the same difference." JJ muttered before walking into the shop with us following closely behind.
"Afternoon, ma'am." JJ said to the woman behind the counter a she approached her.
"Afternoon." The woman said.
"I see you buy gold."
"That's what the sign says, don't it?"
"Well, I sure hope you buy a lot of it, because I'm about to blow your mind."
"I ain't got much mind left to blow, so have at it." JJ then placed the piece of gold on the counter in front of him. "That ain't real." The woman laughed.
"That ain't real?"
"It can't be."
"Feel how heavy it is." JJ told her. The woman then picked up the lump of gold, struggling at first before she picked up a light. "Yeah, let's get some light on that."
"Spray painted tungsten." She said.
"Spray painted tungsten, really? Okay. Why don't you see how soft it is?"
As the woman continued to do tests on the gold, the rest of us looked awkwardly around the shop as we listened to her conversation with JJ. "Okay, to be honest, ma'am. It's really hard to see my mom fall apart with Alzheimer's." JJ told her.
"Give me a minute." The woman then said before she headed towards the room at the back of the shop.
"Take your time, ma'am."
"Alzheimer's?" I questioned in a whisper.
"Well, what else was I suppose to say?" JJ asked before turning back as the woman walked back out.
"So, I, uh, I talked to my boss." She began. "And this is what I can do." She then placed a piece of paper down on the counter before JJ picked it up.
"Fifty thousand? You think I walked in here not knowing the spot price? I know for a fact that this is worth 140, at least." JJ told her.
"Well, sweetie. You're in a pawnshop. This ain't Zurich. Do I look Swiss to you?"
"Ninety, or I walk." JJ said.
"Seventy. Half price. And, um... I don't ask questions about where you got this." The woman replied.
"I'm gonna need that in large denominations, please." JJ told her. The rest of us looked around and smiled.
"Well, here's the snag. I don't have that much denominated, not here anyway. I can write you a cashier's check."
"Cash. I want the cold hard. That's what the sign says. Cash for gold. That's what I expect. I'm gonna get it in cold hard."
"Well, I'll have to send you to the warehouse. I have the money there. Is that alright?"
"Where's this warehouse?" JJ asked her.
***
"So they keep money out here?" Pope asked as we made our way to this warehouse.
"That's what she said." JJ replied before laughing to himself. "That's what she said."
"Stop." Pope told him.
"It seems sketchy." I added as I looked out the window to see nothing but weeds and trees.
"Yeah, I've never even heard of resurrection drive." Sarah said from the front seat.
"That's because your rich." JJ told her.
"You've never heard of it either." Kie sighed. "There's nothing but weeds back here."
"Alright, just because it's just weeds, doesn't mean it's, like...-" JJ began before we heard a siren coming from the car behind us.
"Cops?" I questioned as I turned around to look at the normal looking vehicle through the back window. "Out here?"
"God!" JJ exclaimed. "Are you kidding me?"
"What did we do?" Sarah asked.
"Why are we getting pulled over?" Pope then asked.
"Stash that." John B told JJ as he stopped the van and turned to look at the piece of gold in JJ's hand. "Did you bring the gun?"
"No, okay?" JJ told him. "Everybody told me to leave it back at the place.
"Thank god." Kie said. "Please, put everything else in your bag."
"I am, I am, alright?"
"How much weed do you have on you, bro?"
JJ then hid his bag under the seat as we all moved around the back of the van. We stopped when we heard a gun cock from outside John B's window and we looked up. A guy, not much older than us, stood there with a mask over the bottom half of his face and a gun in his hand. "Why don't I go ahead and see them hands in the air?" He asked as he pointed the gun at John B. "All of your hands up in the air right now!" He shouted. We all frowned and raised our hands up. "You, out of the car! Let's go!"
John B then slowly climbed out of the car as he did what the stranger told him too. "Out of the car, let's go. Hurry! Now, let them out! What are you waiting on? Let them out." I then grabbed onto Pope's hand and squeezed it as John B opened the door for us to climb out of the van. Sarah was first followed by the rest of us. "Get out the car! Let's go! Hurry up!"
"We're broke." JJ told him as he climbed out of the vehicle last.
"Shut the hell up! Shut up! Shut up!" The stranger screamed as he raised the gun slightly at the blonde.
"Alright, alright." JJ said. "Relax."
"I'll blow your damn head off! Now, lay down in the ditch! On your goddamn hands and knees! Down!" We all slowly lowered ourselves to the floor as we kept our hands in the air. "Put your face of the ground!" It was then that I put my hands on the back of my head and leaned closer towards the floor. My body was shaking and tears were filling my eyes. "Don't let me see you look up! Alright? That's all you gotta do!"
The man then entered the van as he began to search it. "It's a set up, guys." Kiara said with her head facing the floor.
"That old bat shanked us." JJ told us.
"Yeah, no shit." I added. "I told you this seemed sketchy." I then looked up as John B was climbing to his feet and frowned. "What are you doing?" I asked in a whisper.
"John B, don't be a hero." Pope told him. "Get down." John B didn't listen. He stood up and quietly made his way over to the car and climbed into the back seat.
"Alright, y'all just stay there just like that unless you want your brains blown out all over this road, okay? Don't move your goddam heads!" The man said as he climbed out of the van with the piece of gold in his hand."
He then made his way over to the car that John B was still inside and we all looked up as John B started to attack him. We then climbed to our feet and JJ raced over to help John B. "JJ, get the gun!" John B told him as he pushed the guy out of the car before punching him. Kie then joined in and punched him as Pope grabbed the gold from inside the car. I the jumped onto the guy's back before pulling my arm around his neck and choking him as JJ and John B started to hit him before I jumped off and he fell to the floor. Sarah then contributed by hitting him with the car door several times before Pope kicked him.
John B then unmasked him. "I know this piece of shit!" JJ exclaimed as we all looked at him. "He's a basehead!"
"Probably knows my brother." Sarah added.
"He sells coke to my dad."
"Hey, listen, I could've hurt any single one of y'all-" The guy began but JJ hit him and stopped him from talking.
"Dude, chill, man." Pope told him. JJ then reached into his pocket and pulled out the guy's wallet before looking at the ID inside. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"We've got one last stop." JJ said before heading towards the van before me, Sarah, Kie and Pope.